1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic article feeding apparatus for feeding articles such as parts or units to an assembling/processing machine, and the like and, more particularly, to an article feeding apparatus capable of feeding a necessary number of articles required by the assembling/processing machine without delaying the feeding of articles.
2. Prior Art
The present applicant proposed article feeding apparatuses belonging to the same technical field as that of the present invention in Japanese Patent Application Nos. 60-195594 (filed on Sep. 4, 1985), 61-200949 (filed on Aug. 27, 1986), 61-200950 (filed on Aug. 27, 1986), and 60-159610 (filed on Jul. 19, 1985). The former three out of these four applications were consolidated and correspond to U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,828, and the last one corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,680.
The article feeding apparatuses according to these four applications are ones for feeding, to an assembling machine, articles to be assembled therein. Each article feeding apparatus comprises a stocking means (stocker in one embodiment), adjacent to the assembling machine, capable of stocking a plurality of pallets upon feeding articles. The stocking means is connected to a pallet feeding means and a pallet discharging means. The pallet feeding means has a function of simultaneously receiving a plurality of pallets from a pallet conveying vehicle, and separating one pallet from the plurality of pallets. The pallet discharging means has the function of discharging an empty pallet from the stocking means.
Each article feeding apparatus according to the previous applications employs an arrangement in which the stocking means, feeding means, and pallet discharging means are arranged two-dimensionally on a single plane. As a result, the article feeding apparatus requires a large installation area, and factory layout is made complicated and difficult.
Since the feeding means and the pallet discharging means are arranged two-dimensionally, different moving paths of conveying means must be prepared. The entire system of the article feeding apparatus including the conveying means is complicated.
Furthermore, each article feeding apparatus according to the previous applications does not have a function of separating and drawing out an arbitrary pallet from a plurality of pallets which are fed from a feed source and are stacked. In other words, each article feeding apparatus of the previous applications is suitable for one in which identical articles are fed to all the pallets and the identical articles are fed to a receiving portion.
As applications by others which belong to the same technical field as that of the present invention, Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) Nos. 60-122632 (Laid-Open date; Jul. 1, 1985), 61-206708 (Laid-Open date; Sep. 13, 1986), and 61-168452 (Laid-Open date; Jul. 30, 1986) are known.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 60-122632 relates to an automatic parts array feeding apparatus for storing a variety of parts arrays in a predetermined container, sequentially taking out the stored parts arrays, and automatically feeding the taken-out parts array to an arbitrary position. This patent discloses the apparatus comprising a stack separating unit for stacking and storing containers and separating these containers, a pusher for pushing out the separated containers, an intermediate holding unit for moving an empty container downward to keep a stock space for the next full container, and holding the container, a lifter for stacking and discharging empty containers, and an unloading conveyor for unloading an empty container.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 61-206708 relates to a tray transferring apparatus for automatically transferring a tray on which a large number of products or parts are placed in a working unit of a product working section in accordance with a work content so as to send and receive products or parts. This patent discloses the apparatus comprising a plurality of stages of stock units for loading/unloading and supporting a tray, a transfer machine for loading/unloading the tray to/from these stock units, an elevating member for placing the tray unloaded from the stock unit thereon, a driving device for driving the elevating member, and a control unit.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 61-168452 relates to an automatic large work feeding/taking-out apparatus for automatically feeding/taking out parts constituting a frame, mainly, a box-like work, of a relatively large work, such as a radio receiver, a radio receiver with a cassette tape recorder, a video tape recorder, a television set, or the like. This patent discloses that a rack stocking works in a plurality of stages is transferred to the work take-out position of a robot by a feeding conveyor so that a work in each stage of the rack is taken out, and when the works in the rack are used up, the rack is sent back by a transfer conveyor and a new rack stocking works is fed to the feeding conveyor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,863 (which matured from U.S. Ser. No. 790,765) cited by the examiner in examination of U.S. Ser. No. 903,412 filed by the present applicant (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,828, date of patent; Mar. 24, 1988, filed on Oct. 23, 1985) discloses a system for assembling electronic component kits, which relates to automated systems and more specifically to automated systems for constructing component kits for electronic printed circuit boards. U.S. Ser. No. 790,765 is the continuing application of U.S. Ser. No. 528,022. The Japanese counterpart of U.S. Ser. No. 528,022 was provisionally published under Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 60-56702 (Laid-Open Date; Apr. 2, 1985). The system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,863 is a system for assembling component kits, comprising:
(A) a multi-level carousel means, each of said multi-levels of said carousel being selectively movable in at least a first direction along a first closed path independently of any other multi-level, each level of said carousel having a plurality of storage bins such that when a selected level of said carousel is rotated, a selected storage bin is selectively positioned with respect to the said first path along which said carousel is rotated;
(B) first and second elevators in a fixed, horizontally spaced-apart relation adjacent to said first path,
each elevator including a vertically movable carriage for movement between selected heights corresponding to selected multi-levels, PA1 each carriage having a horizontal, rotatable turntable thereon and carrying, PA1 first and second retractable-extendable tray engaging means located on one and the opposite sides, respectively, of the axis of rotation of said turntable and equally spaced therefrom, said tray engaging means being in parallel and reversed relation to each other so that movements of retraction and extension are in 180.degree. opposite directions, said rotatable turntables being operable to one and a 180.degree. opposite position in which said movements are perpendicular to said first path; PA1 and further including a robot intermediate said first and second areas and having a working range extending thereto, PA1 said working range further including a component collection kit area having kits there located to which components obtained from said first and second areas are delivered by said robot; PA1 for elevating said carriage to a position in which an empty side of said first turntable is aligned with said first selected tray from which components are to be obtained, and for operating one tray engaging means to draw said first selected tray onto said first turntable, and then rotating said first turntable 180.degree. and operating the other tray engaging means on the other side of said first turntable to place a second, at least partly used tray in the location from which said first selected tray was removed, and PA1 then lower said first turntable and to align the empty side thereof with said first tray receiving area and drawing a third tray from said first tray receiving area onto the previously empty side of said first turntable, then rotating said first turntable 180.degree. and placing said first tray on said first tray receiving area, PA1 and then repeating the operation beginning with positioning a selected storage bin at a selected position, PA1 operating said second elevator carriage and turntable and associated parts in the same sequence, but in alternating relation to the first carriage, and in connection with the second tray receiving area so at least one of the first and second tray receiving areas has a tray thereon at any given time, PA1 and operating said robot to remove components from said first and second trays alternately and to place them in said component collection kits. PA1 a base on which the plurality of containers are stacked; and PA1 separating means for separating a predetermined container from other containers of the plurality of containers stacked on the base; PA1 stocking means for storing the containers so as to feed articles to the section to be subjected to feeding; PA1 signal generating means for generating a signal requesting a draw-in operation of a predetermined container to the stocking means from the plurality of containers stacked on the base; PA1 drive means for vertically moving the base so that the predetermined container requested by the signal generating means opposes the separating means; and PA1 discriminating means for discriminating whether or not the container vertically moved to the position opposing the separating means by the drive means is a container requested by the signal generating means.
(C) component handling robot apparatus including a first tray receiving area longitudinally aligned with one of said sides of one of said turntables, and a second tray receiving area longitudinally aligned with one of said sides of the other of said turntables,
(D) means controlling said carousel means, said elevator carriages and turntables, said tray engaging means and said robot, for positioning a first selected storage bin carried by said carousel at a selected position and